Alibaba, iwoca and ezbob partner to help small businesses access trade finance

e-Credit Line service will allow UK small and medium firms to draw down credit when dealing with Chinese suppliers

by Megan Dunsby

Updated: Oct 2, 2018 Published: Mar 11, 2015

China's Shanghai district

Alibaba.com, a platform for global wholesale trade, has today announced a partnership with small business e-lenders iwoca and ezbob (formerly Everline) to help small firms access trade financing more easily when dealing with Chinese suppliers.

Set to enable more small and medium UK businesses to trade in the global market, the deal marks a European first for Alibaba and intends to “overcome a major hurdle in the sourcing cycle”.

The deal will enable businesses looking to finance inventory and purchases from a China-based supplier to apply for a line of credit, receive approval, and then make multiple draw downs to finance purchases – facilitated by either ezbob or iwoca – with these funds then disbursed directly to the supplier.

The partnership will tie in with Alibaba’s latest product launch of its e-Credit Line with the services named as iwoca e-Credit Line and ezbob e-Credit Line.

Wei Duan, Alibaba.com’s European marketing and business development director, said of the deal: “We know that small businesses need fast access to trade finance in order to compete and succeed.

“Working with the leaders in this field, ezbob and iwoca, offers each of our customers an advanced and integrated trade finance service package.”

Christoph Rieche, iwoca CEO, added:

“Small business have been failed by the banks due to lack of available financing. This has held back UK economic growth.

“The partnership with Alibaba.com highlights automatic growth in alternative forms of lending and the economic shift away from established bank lenders. We expect to finance over £100m worth of deals over the next 12 months.”